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With COVID-19 causing global economic uncertainty, the demands on a founder running a new business are greater than ever. This guide provides practical advice for strategically managing stress—guidance that is even more relevant for founders now.
Before I became a clinical psychologist, I was a small-town high school track star. My favorite events were the sprints. There is very little competitive strategy beyond mastering the starting blocks. Start moving. Don't stop. Don't slow. Go, go, go. Move fast and break things.
The 400 m (one lap around the track; about a quarter of a mile) is a different sport altogether. Now your running requires strategy. There are moments to ease off and moments to kick into high gear.
I ran my first 400 m like I was being chased by a lion.
A strange thing began to happen about 75 m before the finish line: My form began to collapse, my strong sprinting legs began to feel like dead weight, my arms began to swing back and forth, twisting across my upper body. I struggled to inhale. I stumbled over the finish line, leaned over, and vomited all over the track.
Throwing up in front of a packed grandstand was not my finest moment.
I was used to speed and competitive intensity, but I wasn't used to running that fast for that long. I learned the hard way that failing to have a pacing strategy can lead to disaster.
We should stop treating our businesses like short sprints. Move fast; don't break you.
Run smart, not just hard
You need a strategy for how you will approach the intense demands of starting a business.
I'm sure that you've worked hard before. You know what it is like to hustle. You know what it is like to put in long hours. You are likely beginning a business because you have experience focusing intensely on a problem until you come up with a solution. You've learned how to master your craft or area of expertise. You've realized that you have a product or service that people need and want.
As an online entrepreneur, you are what determines the success or failure of your business. You are the center around which your business emanates. Intelligence, creativity, ability to communicate, level of focus, perseverance, expertise, capacity to solve problems, decision-making skills, professional network: You will need all of these, but they are not sufficient for success.
You have drive, experience, and competitive intensity; you need coaching and practice on your pacing, just like I did.
Stress: life-saving and deadly
Starting a business is stressful.
Feeling stressed is appropriate. It is the natural response to doing something that is both difficult and important. The stakes are high. Good decisions matter. Trusting the right people is essential. Building a customer base, clearly communicating your brand and your worth, watching the budget, growing a network, hiring contractors or the first employee. All of these things are stressful because they are important. Stress and motivation go hand in hand. The sources of stress are often the things that we most need to attend to. The stress we feel is our own internal alarm going off to say, "Don't forget, pay attention, think this through..."
Stress is often a good thing. It keeps us awake and activated.
Your body is built to experience stress. Your fight-or-flight response kicks in. When you come across a bear in the woods, do you run? Or do you grab a branch and fight? The instant the bear comes into view, your heart rate elevates, breathing speeds up, muscles tighten, digestion and other nonessential functions slow down or stop, and your heart begins to push blood into your extremities. Your senses become more acute, and your body becomes ready to respond. This stress response can save your life.
When that bear is a huge deadline, a make-it-or-break-it presentation, or a tough decision that has to be made, that natural fight-or-flight response allows you to react in a faster, more acute way. It is not in spite of—but because of—your innate ability to respond to stress that you are able to meet that deadline, to nail that presentation, to make that decision. The Yerkes-Dodson Law is based on a series of classic psychological research studies, which measured the relationship between stress and performance. The general finding is that the "right" amount—a happy medium—of stress contributes to peak performance.
Your stress helps you.
So why does stress get such a bad rap?
Stress moves from a life-saving to a life-threatening mechanism when it shifts from acute to chronic. A short-term, time-limited stressor (a bear, an important presentation) is what is known in the psychological world as acute stress. Acute stress helps you to perform at your best, to fight problems head-on, to run faster, to focus better, to be creative and in-tune with what you need to do. Our bodies are designed for acute stress, and multiple systems in the body work together to handle it. Our bodies know exactly what to do, and perhaps more importantly, our bodies know how to stop doing it.
The presentation. The board meeting. The decision. It happens. Your body's mechanisms step up to handle it. You do. Then it's over.
When the stressor goes away, your parasympathetic nervous system kicks in and your heart rate resets to normal, your muscles relax, the blood flow returns to your brain, your digestive system comes back online. And life moves forward.
Acute stress works to protect us when we're threatened.
When we face acute stress for a long period of time—chronic stress—we begin to push our bodies to do something they weren't designed to do. Chronic stress can literally break down your body. It has serious and lasting health consequences. Research has shown links between chronic stress and almost every chronic health problem: heart disease, obesity, diabetes, irritable bowel syndrome, Crohn's disease, asthma, migraines, gastrointestinal problems, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, cancer. The software problem can become a hardware problem.
Additionally, chronic stress can cause major emotional problems. Unmanaged chronic stress shifts into anxiety—a prolonged inner battle with fears and negative or damaging thoughts. Chronic stress does not make for effective entrepreneurs, managers, or partners. Sufferers are constantly working hard to keep it together—to keep stress in check—and as a result, anxious folks can be impulsive, angry, and short-tempered. They make bad decisions. They may try to cope through alcohol or substance abuse.
As a business owner, chronic stress is a significant danger. Not only are you experiencing all of the normal stressors of human life, but you also have the weight of your business on your shoulders. There is always a deadline, always a decision to be made, always a presentation or a meeting, always a tricky customer or contractor to deal with. You can't escape the stress—especially when you're running a company—so you have to find strategies to pace yourself.
Coping with chronic stress
Coping with chronic stress is about figuring out how to run fast for a long period of time without losing your lunch in front of a crowd. There is no single right way to organize your life, but I'll give you some research-based suggestions. You'll have to do some customization to come up with a stress-management plan that really works for you. Even if you tinker and experiment, I assure you it is worth the effort to figure out a stress-management strategy that works well for you. Without exaggeration: Your personal well-being and the sustainability of your business may depend on it.
Recognize your individual stress signals
Suffering from chronic stress is a like being the proverbial frog in the pot with the slowly boiling water. The frog got in trouble one degree at a time. The negative consequences of chronic stress can creep in slowly. Perhaps your busy mind wakes you up at 3:00 a.m. several nights in a row. You're tired, so you're easily irritable with family members. You have a near-constant headache—perhaps caused by clenching your jaw or grinding your teeth. Your stomach is upset. You drink more caffeine to wake up. You drink more alcohol to try to sleep. It becomes harder to focus for significant amounts of time. Your decisions get more reactive, more impulsive. When did this water get so hot?
The magic trick of effective chronic stress management is to catch it early. You have your own early stress indicators. Your body is often the best early warning system that stress is beginning to take a toll. When I'm experiencing accumulating chronic stress, I stop sleeping well. Some people experience an upset stomach (nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea). Other folks get sore shoulders, headaches, or other kinds of pain. Perhaps your early warning sign is a harsh tone, irritability, or feeling extra "moody." Maybe you find yourself craving sweets or salty food. Or turning to a glass (or three) of wine or scotch so that you can go to sleep at night. Perhaps you lose interest in sex and closeness with others. Perhaps your interest in sex escalates drastically. Certain aspects of your personality may become more prominent under stress. Perhaps you get more chaotic (lose your keys, run late, forget things, miss appointments). On the other hand, the "type A" parts of you might become more prominent—you may find yourself becoming more rigid than normal (going a little crazy with the spreadsheets or doubling up on procedural documentation). Under stress, introverts might become even more reclusive, and extroverts may have a hard time sitting down to work. Finding that you're becoming off-balance, or a little "too much" of yourself is another good indicator that stress is getting the best of you.
Accumulating chronic stress affects everyone's body and life differently. There's not one specific thing that signals trouble in every person. Take a moment to reflect on your stress signals. When you've been stressed in the past, is there a part of your body that aches or an organ system that seems to stop functioning well? Or are there a set of behaviors that signal trouble?
Knowing your personal early warning signs is essential to your ability to be proactive and work against chronic stress before it destroys your health and wreaks havoc in your business and your relationships.
Problem-solve your pain points
What is causing your stress? Take an honest look at the main culprits behind stress. Start by writing a list of your stressors from all areas of your life, including work, home, family, and relationships. Find the specific pain points.
It may be that you feel stressed but not really clear about what is driving that feeling. By parsing out the specific causes of stress, it becomes possible to look at the list and problem-solve your stressors one by one. Some stressors are changeable or avoidable.
For example, perhaps you have a stress spike most afternoons when you are trying to wrap-up a prospective client call and then hurl yourself out the door so that you can pick up your child from school by 3:30 p.m. Perhaps you need to arrange afterschool care for your child two afternoons a week so that you can complete prospective client calls without feeling rushed. If you find yourself constantly stressed by the amount of emails sitting in your inbox, consider hiring a part-time assistant to make a first pass or respond to all nonessential emails.
The point is to systematically examine each pain point and ask, "What control do I have here? How can I eliminate or decrease this experience in my life?"
Make changes and collect data. Implement the changes that most directly modify the sources of your stress and then track your mood—pay attention to whether or not your changes are impacting the bottom line of stress.
Shift from passive thinking ("this stress is happening to me") to active thinking ("I can take control of some parts of my stress"). Stress is no longer a villain, and you are no longer a defenseless victim. You have some control over how much stress you experience as you build your business. Use stress to your advantage. Let it fuel you for short bursts when you need peak performance and then return to your baseline for the long haul.
Manage stress in the moment
Not all stressors are "problem-solvable." The year that my consulting firm opened, my dad was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and both my mom and youngest brother spent weeks in intensive care units for unrelated, life-threatening medical crises. My husband and I also took emergency guardianship of two children who needed a safe place to live. It would have been a challenging year had I not been starting a business. Because I was also starting a business, my level of stress was sky-high. And there wasn't much I could do to eliminate these stressors from my life. They were happening, and they were completely outside of my control.
What do we do about stressors that we can't problem-solve? When you can't attack the problem (i.e., the stressor), you attack the stress itself. In order for you to function well, you must be able to have some level of calm control over how stress shapes your body and your emotions. I appreciate that this is easy to say and harder to do. However, like any skill, cultivating inner calm in the face of significant stress can be done.
When you notice your chest tighten, your breath become shallow or your palms begin to sweat—whatever your early stress signals are—it is time for a break, even a microscopic break. An emerging body of research suggests that the best tool we have to counteract heightened stress is slow, deep breaths. Here's a brief, user-friendly summary; but, trust me, the research support is extensive. If there were one tool I could equip every new entrepreneur with, it would be the ability to breathe slowly and deeply.
To practice this, place a one hand with your palm over your belly button. Inhale slowly through your nose (aim for four to five seconds) and watch your hand rise as your belly "inflates" with oxygen. Exhale slowly through your nose (another count of four to five seconds) and watch as your hand sinks in toward your spinal cord as your belly "deflates." Take four or five breaths this way, breathing through your nose into your belly. Breathing this way is simple, but it is also powerful. It signals the activation of your parasympathetic or "calm down" nervous system and lets your body know that there is not an immediate threat that requires an acute stress response.
You can breathe like this in the middle of a conversation, in the middle of a task. I've done it on stage without people really noticing. It is a fast, simple, highly effective tool for "in-the-moment" stress. In addition to practicing slow, deep breaths, here are a few other tools that night help you manage stress spikes in the middle of your work life:
- Take a three- to five-minute stretch break. Give attention to your shoulders, neck, and jaw.
- Put on calming music.
- Change work settings.
- Take a break and call a friend or family member.
- Get up and walk around the block.
- Close your eyes for 10 minutes.
- Meditate or pray.
- Have a healthy snack, or spend a moment enjoying a hot drink.
- Get up and splash cool water on your face.
- Take a moment to apply good-smelling lotion to your hands.
- Put a drop of essential oil on your wrist.
The stress reaction is about going fast and speeding up in order to respond. By doing the opposite and slowing yourself down, you counteract the emotions behind the reaction and thus the stress itself. By changing one or more sources of sensory input (sight, sound, scent, taste, and tactile sensation) you give your brain new data to compute. If that new sensory information is calming, it can be another trigger to activate the parasympathetic or "calm down" system.
These skills can be practiced as a calm-down mechanism in the midst of elevated stress. They can also be integrated into daily life as a way of building up your "anti-stress" muscles. A few minutes of deep breathing or meditation each day can work wonders to lower your baseline level of stress and anxiety. These practices also support increased attention and focus, improved sleep, and decreased depression. It is a great investment in you and your business.
Live a stress-savvy lifestyle
The first year of your business may be the most important time to live your life in a way that allows you to cope with stress in a healthy and proactive way. This statement is counter-cultural to the "hustle" of the startup. Contrary to popular opinion, working more is not always working better. The habits you build into your business (and, by extension, your daily life) will continue for years. Choose habits that counteract chronic stress before it accumulates. This will contribute to the long-term sustainability of your business and make your life more enjoyable during the early years of intensity.
You are the expert on yourself. If you give it a little reflection, you likely have some insight into what needs to be in place for you to live a stress-minimizing lifestyle. Thankfully psychologists and other medical professionals have researched the most effective buffers against the negative consequences of chronic stress.
Take care of your body. Much of the damage that stress causes is due to the cumulative effects of cortisol on the body. Taking care of your body can help you optimize your capacity to counteract stress. This means sleeping well, fueling your body with nutritious food, and moving your body (elevating your heart rate) for at least 30 minutes three times a week. These three things are essential to optimal stress management and optimal neurological functioning. Your brain doesn't work well without basic care and maintenance. Eating, sleeping, and moving are the basic building blocks of self-care that fuel your body well. It is going to be very difficult for you to be excellent at your business without taking care of your body.
Keep connected. If you're going to go through something difficult, the one resource that will best predict how well you manage is the quality of your relationships. Relationships protect us from the mental health problems associated with extreme stress. Do not neglect your relationships while you are growing your business. If you are successful, you will want folks to celebrate with. If you fail, you will want a community of loved ones to prop you up again.
Celebrate success. The early years of a business can feel like a blur. There are very few moments of "arrival." There are never moments when the to-do list is done. It is hard to ever feel "done." However, our brains benefit from the neurological boost that comes with the satisfaction of completion. Building a business is a long slog. It is important to celebrate the completion of specific goals: your first paying customer, your first bulk order, your first viral post. Whatever small goals are guiding your business "to do" list. Find ways to celebrate them. My friend Phil made a list of five goals he wanted to complete in a year, and then he selected a special bottle of wine for each of those five goals. Each bottle was labeled with a sticky note: "Sell WordPress Plugin" on the Edna Valley Pinot Noir, and "Launch Onboarding Automation" was attached to the Napa Cabernet Sauvignon.
We hard-driving entrepreneur types are often biased toward what is undone. We finish one thing, and we jump right into the next thing. But good stress management demands that we counterbalance the unending to-do list with micro-celebrations along the way. Tell the truth about what is being accomplished just as much as you tell the truth about what needs to be done. Your brain needs the endorphins. Your friends and family need the opportunity to celebrate you. Your cofounder, employees, or team members need to see you celebrating so that they feel safe throwing some high fives around. And you need to be reminded of all that is being accomplished.
Make time to play. Starting requires tremendous effort, perseverance, focus, and good old-fashioned hard work. Resist the temptation to roll your eyes when I mentioned that part of ensuring your success is making time for play. Play activities are things you choose to do because they spark joy. Play lets your brain and body enjoy a different speed—a break from the intensity and hard work of growing a business. Play should be immersive and stimulating. These are things like archery, playing in a soccer league, chess, snowboarding, building with Legos, making a quilt, cycling, playing in a band, painting, roughhousing with kids, or rebuilding a classic car. Playing video games and watching TV or movies are certainly common ways to relax. These aren't at the top of my list because they tend to be cognitively and physically passive. The best forms of play involve all parts of you: your body, your intelligence, your emotions. They cause you to lose track of time and create a feeling of delight. They allow you, at least temporarily, to forget about your stress.
A stress-savvy lifestyle is one in which you counteract stress with proactive and emotionally and physically healthy choices. You do this to train for the stress. You do it in the midst of stress. You do it because you realize that you can't afford to sacrifice your wellness to the altar of hustle.
Intensity and speed without strategy may cause you to lose your lunch or leave you feeling burnt out and anxious.
Mastering the ups and downs
The ups and downs are inevitable. As an entrepreneur, you will have moments when you are killing it. You will experience elation when you are flying high with excitement about the success of a new product, customer growth, partnership opportunities, connections to influential people, big contracts, or income. Those are glorious moments. And in those moments, it will be hard to imagine ever doing anything else. It feels so good to see your work welcomed into the world. The moments of excitement and pride are the reward for the hard work. The moments of momentum give hope that your business will grow and flourish and give you a great lifestyle and the opportunity to make a significant impact on the world.
But there will be the other moments too. The moments when you feel discouraged, embarrassed, fearful, or angry. There will be moments when you want to quit. The moments when someone betrays your trust or a client stops using your service. There will be moments when you aren't sure if you'll be able to make payroll and moments when you aren't sure if you'll be able to keep the business alive. Some of these low moments will be fleeting thoughts. Some of them will stretch into months of agony. These moments will test your fortitude, wisdom, and patience. They will be very, very hard.
First and foremost, the highs and lows are a normal part of starting a business. You are not alone in the ups and downs and the highs and lows. The internet is not always honest. Many info-marketers tout their sure-fire strategies to sail your way into a seven-figure business. They might as well be selling snake oil for eternal life or ocean front property in Las Vegas. It's an intriguing story. But it belongs in the fiction section. There is no easy way to success. It is a grind and a risk and an outpouring of time, energy, resources, and emotional capital. It won't happen smoothly, and it won't happen in one day.
People tend to underestimate the emotional toll of starting a business. Many new entrepreneurs prepare for the time investment and the financial investment. I'm sure you've made a business plan and done your research about taxes and incorporation. You've prepared for the nuts and bolts. But you also need to plan for the emotional investment.
As an entrepreneur, your business is an extension of you. It is your livelihood. It is the mechanism by which you will feed your children and the entity that decides whether or not you'll be taking that trip to Cancun this year. The well-being of your business determines your financial well-being. That means that your emotional state is linked to its ups and downs. However, the connection between you and your business goes deeper than livelihood. Your business came from your mind and represents your unique way to solve a problem or view the world. Your business is a result of your skills and expertise. It is something that exists because you exist. Unlike a work setting where you clock in and clock out, building your own business is deeply tied to your identity.
When you offer something in public, you make yourself vulnerable, and you put yourself out in the open. There's an emotional intensity to that. When you're behind the wheel or when you're holding the ball, you are on display for all the world to see. That is an adrenaline-fueled, all-on-the-line kind of experience—in both a good way and a bad way.
This makes business mistakes particularly difficult. They often happen in public. And they can take on much greater significance than "Oops, that link was wrong." You will make mistakes in your business. A typo, an incorrectly sent email, or a plane ticket for the wrong date. It will absolutely happen. The question is how low you go in response to those experiences. How well can you brush it off? How much do your business mistakes derail you?
Achieving healthy boundaries
You are not your business. And your business is not your baby.
I recently read a research study published in Human Brain Mapping that compared brain scans (fMRIs) of fathers thinking about their children to brain scans of entrepreneurs thinking about their businesses. It may not shock you to learn that the regions of neurological activation were very similar. Both fathers and founders experienced activation in the part of their brain that releases dopamine. This is a reward center—we feel good when it is activated.
Like parents gazing at images of their sweet young children, entrepreneurs experienced a little swirl of reward—a little dopamine hit—when gazing at images of their company. At the neurological level, entrepreneurs have a lovey-dovey, affectionate relationship with their company.
In addition, the entrepreneurial brains, like the fathers' brains, demonstrated a suppression of the parts of the brain that are connected to critical social processing. These areas of the brain are important to social assessment or the ability to read and evaluate the intentions of another person. (This is the part of your brain that was active last night at a cocktail party as you scanned the room and unconsciously evaluated who you wanted to talk to.)
When these brain areas are offline or suppressed, people are unable to accurately connect with and relate to others. The founders in this study were essentially unable to critically assess their company as a separate entity. Instead, the business was encoded in their brains as an extension of the self. (And just like romantic love and parental love, founder love is blind.)
On the one hand, this research explained some things about founders to me. Some of it is good. This finding demonstrates the sacrifice, the drive, the craziness that comes from being a founder. Parental love brings forth the best and worst in human beings. I never knew how patient, self-sacrificing, and strong I could be until I had children. And I never knew how selfish, short-tempered, and crazy I could be until I had children.
The same goes for being a founder: Sometimes, you feel obsessed and on fire. Other times, you are passionate and creative. Often, you are a little irrational about all you're doing to grow your business, and now we know there's some science behind that.
On the other hand, I'm a little bit troubled by the implications of how deeply a business can become integrated with our very being. Just like in any important human relationship, too much fusion, too much enmeshment, and too many connected emotions can be dangerous. Giving your whole heart to a business is psychologically dangerous.
Entrepreneurs can get so emotionally attached to their business that they come to relate to the business as if it were another person. Unfortunately for entrepreneurs, businesses do not make good romantic partners. They are erratic and demanding, not good listeners, and they never, ever take out the trash.
A business can take over everything. It can take over your time, your energy, your thoughts, and your emotions, and with that comes a weightiness that is always there, no matter what you do. At that point, it's so easy to start telling yourself that you've got it handled, you're doing fine, and you don't need anyone or anything. From there, it's a slow progression to letting yourself be more and more consumed by the work. Soon, you wake up, and that's what you think about; when you're with friends and family, that's what you're thinking about; when you go to sleep, that's what you're thinking about.
This is a misplaced identity—the job or the startup or the idea has become both who the founder is and what the founder loves. But your business simply can't carry the weight of who you are—it will never be your full value or your purpose. Nor is it a good love outlet, because it just can't love you back. Your startup doesn't have the shoulders to bear that weight, and it shouldn't. So that misplaced emotional attachment has to go if you want to be healthy and strong for yourself, for your business, and for your family.
The key is to have a bit of emotional distance. It helps to be able to separate who you are from the business that you're building. The highs and lows will happen, but your identity, emotional life, and relationships don't have to bear the brunt of the gravitational force.
How to ride the roller coaster
What do we do about these high highs and low lows? What do we do about the intense entanglements between our business and our identity? How can you found and grow a business without getting emotionally torn up? Let's talk about specific strategies.
Track your highs and lows. One of the most important activities in my life comes down to two sentences. Every day I write the high point of my day and the low point of my day. It is simple data collection. The power of this data is not so much in the daily moment. Although there are many psychological benefits to journaling, the power in this practice happens when you review the sentences that you amass over time. Having three months, or three years, of highs and lows helps you see patterns that you're unable to see in the day-to-day of your life. When you have longitudinal data, you can identify the parts of your life that are your "sweet spots." You can also see the parts of your life that leave you depleted, stressed, and unhappy.
This data can help you in a few ways. First, it can help you optimize for the sweet spots—the parts of your life that you find meaningful, enjoyable, and engaging. These are the parts of your life where you have the highest likelihood of influence and sustainable energy. Tracking your lows gives you information about what you should hire out, eliminate, or avoid. Seeing the data over time can help you identify ways in which your energy is not being well-utilized. The second way this information can help you is that when you track your highs and lows over time you inevitably see the power of passing time. This too shall pass. The mistakes, criticisms, low points, and failures don't last forever. Eventually they are replaced by other feelings, by other experiences of success and joy.
That is one of your most life-saving abilities as a founder: to know that no matter how low things are, the lows won't last. The moment will pass. The situation will change. All roller coasters, no matter how wild, are time-limited.
Diversify your emotional portfolio. You can't only be emotionally invested in your business. Maintain your friendships and your relationships with your family members. Let romance be part of your life. Let yourself enjoy hobbies and exercise. Fight the urge to eat, sleep, and breathe the business every moment of your day. Let yourself experience the emotional ups and downs of other parts of your life. When you, the entrepreneur, are in a dip, the other parts of you (your life as a parent, an Italian soccer fan, a microbrew aficionado) will provide emotional counterbalance.
Adopt a growth mindset. How you choose to see the lows is the difference between having a "fixed mindset" or a "growth mindset." These terms were originally coined by Stanford University professor of psychology, Dr. Carol Dweck. According to Dweck's theory, the fixed mindset assumes our character, abilities, and intelligence are fixed within us—we're either smart, or we're not. We're either capable entrepreneurs, or we're not. Meanwhile, the growth mindset assumes that our skills and abilities are always a work in progress, merely the high water mark for our development and education thus far.
An entrepreneur operating from the growth mindset thrives on challenges and sees failures as opportunities for growth that stretch existing abilities. A growth-oriented entrepreneur has a self-esteem that is tied to effort and learning, not the outcome of any one project. Any one skill, any one success, any one email sent with the wrong link, or any one failure is a starting point for the growth that is cultivated throughout life.
A fixed mindset entrepreneur believes that if she doesn't have a skill today, then she just doesn't have it. Period. This perspective doesn't consider change over time, doesn't acknowledge the value of trying, failing, and trying again. The fixed mindset entrepreneur sees only the present moment in time—not the natural (or intentional) acquisition of skill that comes over time. Turn your lows into learning moments, and turn your highs into celebrations of all that you've learned. Be willing to try new things, to attempt new ideas, to push beyond the boundaries of what you know and can do right now.
Take meaningful breaks. If you spend too much time on roller coasters, you'll get sick and sore and disrupt your equilibrium. Human bodies aren't made for prolonged intensity or prolonged acute stress. If you want to make entrepreneurship a sustainable lifestyle, you have to take breaks. Yes, even in the first year. Yes, even when you're growing and busy and overwhelmed.
There are three kinds of breaks that I think are important:
1. Technology breaks: I have a friend who pays for two iPhones simply so that she can have one for work and one for personal use. She keeps her work contacts and her personal contacts on separate phones. She keeps her work email and personal email on separate phones. And when she finishes work at the end of each day, she plugs her work phone into a charging station and leaves it at the office. Her reasoning is that she was finding herself completely chained to her work, even when she was at home eating dinner with her family or watching her kid's soccer games. An inbox notification would pop up, and she felt like she had to answer it. While this option may be too extreme for you, it's good to find a way to escape from being accessible 24 hours per day. This may mean leaving your phone in the office or putting it in a drawer when you're not working or even turning off notifications. Whatever you decide, make an intentional effort to leave your work communication for your work hours so that you can focus on your family, friends, and nonwork activities.
2. Vacations: Taking a vacation from your everyday life is the best way to give yourself a reboot. A week off helps your body reset from the buildup of chronic stress. It can also give you a refreshed outlook on your life and business and increase your motivation to achieve more. The dividends often pay off right away. Sure, you took a week or two off, but when you come back inspired and refreshed, you're likely to be more productive than you were before.
Nearly every founder I talk to balks at this idea. And I get it. I own a business, as does my husband, and I understand how anxious it makes a founder to step away, especially in the early days when don't have processes or a team to cover for you. It's hard to disconnect, especially because you are an essential (and irreplaceable) part of your business. I know that for me, the idea of leaving and disconnecting from everything often feels more stressful than the idea of staying home and just keeping on.
You need to go on vacation anyway. Research has shown again and again that people who give their minds and bodies a break from the grind are better able to think creatively, to solve problems, to step away from the robotic just-get-it-done mindset that often comes with months and months of stress. When you step back and go on vacation, you re-energize and come back raring to go and stoked about the things you thought of while your mind was on a break.
Going on vacation also gives you time to focus on those relationships and activities that can be easily ignored during the day-to-day slog. Making memories, having shared experiences, or getting time for unhurried conversations are great investments in the freedom, relationships, and joyful experiences that lead most of us down the entrepreneurial path to being with.
Consider this permission—no, a prescription—to go on vacation. If the idea of completely disconnecting makes you all-out panic-attack anxious, don't completely disconnect. Bring your phone along and check email a few times a day, or call in for scrum meetings. Make it work for you and your personal situation. But make sure you make it work. Go. Get away. Find the time. It will pay off for you in the long run. Doctor's orders.
3. Retreats: A vacation is a time-out, away from work. A retreat is a time-in, a deep-dive into your business.
I believe that every entrepreneur needs to take a three-day retreat at least three times each year. A retreat is the time to reflect, refocus, and consider the big picture of your business. It is where you set your goals, evaluate your progress, and assess the health and direction of your business. It's easy to find the business on a path that seemed right a year ago, but is no longer correct; or a path that represents a drift away from your goals; or a path that is right, but needs some tweaking. A reflective retreat can help you double-check your business direction and help you to refocus your business to be even better.
A retreat can mean a lot of things for different people, depending on what will truly give you the solitude, space, and time to think, reflect, and grow. For me, I find a hotel room with a view of the ocean and pack a roll of butcher paper and a box of markers. One of my founder friends goes to her family's cabin in the woods and then retreats even further into nature on hikes so that she can really find a quiet place to think and jot things down in a notebook. My general guidelines: Go somewhere out of your normal day-to-day life, unplug as much as possible, spend time alone, spend time thinking and writing. Leave with some actionable items.
Now, I know that the mere thought of taking a few days off to do nothing but think and reflect sounds terrifying to many of you. You're already considering the logistical nightmare of stopping work for a few days, of finding someone to cover a storefront or to lead a team, of canceling meetings or rescheduling events. And I get it: Life at a business can be daunting and fast-paced. It may feel like you can't afford to take the time for a retreat, but I will flip that on its back and say you can't afford not to.
Being an entrepreneur is an incredibly rewarding way to live life. The high highs and low lows are part of it—they're what make it exciting and rewarding. And they're what make it painful and occasionally overwhelming.
You are not alone
This guide has been full of practical information to help you promote your mental health. But the most important "tactic" of all is not based on you as a lone individual. The most important action that you can take as an entrepreneur is to build up your community of relationships.
One of the most common things I hear from founders is that the people in their lives don't "get it." The spouse, neighbors, college roommate, siblings, and parents don't understand the pressures and challenges of being an entrepreneur.
"No one else gets what it's like to be running my business."
"No one understands my day-to-day life and telling them would be a long, arduous process."
"No one else could possibly understand what I'm feeling right now."
"Other people don't have the combination of pressures and responsibilities that I have."
Your brain is playing a trick on you. Everybody—literally, every single human—has experienced frustration. We've all felt sad. We all know what it's like to be uncertain or scared. Every one of us has felt unmotivated or burned out. All of us have experienced doubt or lack of confidence. All of us have known the joy of success or the thrill that comes when the pieces of life come together in just the right way.
You're not alone.
I'll repeat that: You are not alone.
It's as easy to get into the habit of thinking you are alone and living in isolation as a founder as it is to overcome those thoughts. You just need to get into the habit of saying yes to people. "Yes, I can have coffee just to talk. Yes, I would love to tell you about my day and see if you have any thoughts. Yes, I do want some advice." Yes, yes, yes.
Talk less and listen more, even (especially) to the nonfounders in your life. Listen to their heartaches, annoyances, and fears. Listen to their joys and celebrations. Careful listening will help you to build a bridge between your situation and theirs. Whether you want to connect with your stay-at-home-dad husband; your wife who is an emergency-room doctor; your tween-aged daughter; or your retired, golf-obsessed dad—you'll find the point of connection and understanding if you listen well.
Listening isn't a way to don your superhero cape and fix everyone's problems. You have needs, too. Listening is a way to help others help you. Help your family and friends understand your founder's life by listening for common emotions and worries in the stories of their lives. We are all human, so the best way to connect with others is through those very real, very human emotions.
Deep relationships bring mutual health
Our well-being is contingent on having healthy, deep relationships. Our bodies need physical touch. Our minds crave language. Our hearts are delighted when we are loved by someone. Our minds thrive when we are able to help others. We are a social species. Relationships bring comfort and companionship. The people in our lives can serve as sounding boards as we solve problems, escape routes when we need to get away, unifiers when we are struggling to connect, humor when we need a fresh perspective, and the foundation on which we build our businesses.
It is impossible to be successful in business or life, and it is impossible to be healthy without meaningful, deep relationships. People have to be the first thing we invest in, and our priority over other tasks. (You count as "people," too.)
As a final note, I want to make a quick plug for having a relationship with a mental health professional. A therapist or counselor is trained to listen for problematic patterns and may be able to help you prevent negative spirals or relationship implosions. Many of us also have pretty good ideas about how to manage stress. And if the worst happens—if you fail, feel absolutely alone, fall into depression, have painful thoughts, go through a divorce, experience a bankruptcy—you have an expert in your corner to help you put the pieces back together. For some founder-specific tips on why and how to connect with a mental health professional, check out this podcast episode.
My sincere hope is that you will figure out a personalized strategy to make entrepreneurship a sustainable, meaningful, satisfying, and lucrative way of life. If you think you need someone to talk to, you do—reach out to a local mental health professional or get in touch.


text:
Hip fractures, especially in people age 65 and over, can cause severe health problems and decreased quality of life – but it doesn't have to be that way. Our Hip and Healthy rehabilitation program providing hip therapy, fall prevention and fall risk assessment services. These inpatient rehabilitation services are designed to help patients get back to their normal everyday life following a hip fracture.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, more than 90 percent of hip fractures in older adults are due to falls. Our inpatient rehabilitation program is designed for patients who have experienced a fracture and want to return to a normal life and live as independently as possible. Our team of registered rehabilitation nurses and hip fracture therapists offers the latest rehabilitation technology and training techniques to provide a well-rounded focus on overall hip mobility, recovery and pain management.
By demonstrating compliance with The Joint Commission's national standards for healthcare quality and safety, our hospital is accredited by The Joint Commission.
Read More »
Join us for a virtual tour of our hospital where you will see our patient rooms, exercise facilities, and more. You can also set up a personal tour by calling our hospital.
Learn more »
You don't want to say you enjoy a hospital stay because certainly you don't enjoy it, but I knew he was well cared for.
Other patient testimonials »

subset: commoncrawl


text:
— rndc configuration file
is the configuration file
for rndc, the BIND 9 name server control
utility. This file has a similar structure and syntax to
. Statements are enclosed
in braces and terminated with a semi-colon. Clauses in
the statements are also semi-colon terminated. The usual
comment styles are supported:
C style: /* */
C++ style: // to end of line
Unix style: # to end of line
is much simpler than
. The file uses three
statements: an options statement, a server statement
and a key statement.
The options
statement contains five clauses.
The default-server
clause is followed by the
name or address of a name server. This host will be used when
no name server is given as an argument to
rndc. The default-key
clause is followed by the name of a key which is identified by
a key
statement. If no
is provided on the rndc command line,
and no key
clause is found in a matching
statement, this default key will be
used to authenticate the server's commands and responses. The
clause is followed by the port
to connect to on the remote name server. If no
option is provided on the rndc command
line, and no port
clause is found in a
matching server
statement, this default port
will be used to connect.
The default-source-address
clauses which
can be used to set the IPv4 and IPv6 source addresses
After the server
keyword, the server
statement includes a string which is the hostname or address
for a name server. The statement has three possible clauses:
, port
. The key name must match the
name of a key statement in the file. The port number
specifies the port to connect to. If an addresses
clause is supplied these addresses will be used instead of
the server name. Each address can take an optional port.
If an source-address
or source-address-v6
of supplied then these will be used to specify the IPv4 and IPv6
source addresses respectively.
The key
statement begins with an identifying
string, the name of the key. The statement has two clauses.
identifies the encryption algorithm
for rndc to use; currently only HMAC-MD5
supported. This is followed by a secret clause which contains
the base-64 encoding of the algorithm's encryption key. The
base-64 string is enclosed in double quotes.
There are two common ways to generate the base-64 string for the secret. The BIND 9 program rndc-confgen can be used to generate a random key, or the mmencode program, also known as mimencode, can be used to generate a base-64 string from known input. mmencode does not ship with BIND 9 but is available on many systems. See the EXAMPLE section for sample command lines for each.
options { default-server localhost; default-key samplekey; };
server localhost { key samplekey; };
server testserver { key testkey; addresses { localhost port 5353; }; };
key samplekey { algorithm hmac-md5; secret "6FMfj43Osz4lyb24OIe2iGEz9lf1llJO+lz"; };
key testkey { algorithm hmac-md5; secret "R3HI8P6BKw9ZwXwN3VZKuQ=="; };
In the above example, rndc will by default use the server at localhost (127.0.0.1) and the key called samplekey. Commands to the localhost server will use the samplekey key, which must also be defined in the server's configuration file with the same name and secret. The key statement indicates that samplekey uses the HMAC-MD5 algorithm and its secret clause contains the base-64 encoding of the HMAC-MD5 secret enclosed in double quotes.
If rndc -s testserver is used then rndc will connect to server on localhost port 5353 using the key testkey.
To generate a random secret with rndc-confgen:
A complete rndc.conf
file, including
randomly generated key, will be written to the standard
output. Commented-out key
statements for
are also printed.
To generate a base-64 secret with mmencode:
echo "known plaintext for a secret" | mmencode


text:
Send flowers to Duisburg through local flower shop
Duisburg Flower shop is here for you to send online flowers to Duisburg. You can send red roses, yellow carnations, pink gerberas, lily stems, colorful tulips and more flowers from our flower shop. Flower Shop in Duisburg can also send birthday flowers, anniversary bunch, wedding bouquets, hampers, gift baskets, Christmas gifts and more. You may also send flower delivery to Duisburg on Mothers day, Valentines Day, Fathers day and more occasions. We deliver same day and you can also choose message card and add-on gifts from our website. Order now to send flower bouquet to Duisburg. Shop online with us in order to get our punctual and quick delivery of floral gifts and perk up your acquaintances in an enchanting way.


text:
- This event has passed.
Tapas Tuesdays at Vanessa's Bistro 2 in Walnut Creek
February 8, 2022
Event Navigation
Every Tuesday at Vanessa's Bistro in Downtown Walnut Creek we have Tapas Tuesday. All day on Tuesday the Tapas are all half priced as well as $6 Avion Tequila Margaritas. We are open from 11 AM until 11 PM on Tuesdays.


text:
This is not an offer for credit and should be used for estimation purposes only based on the information you provided. You should not base your decision on this estimate alone. Title, registration, tax and other fees, and personal circumstances such as employment status and personal credit history, were not considered in the calculations.
Front - Dual 220 mm ventilated disc with hydraulic twin-piston calipers
Maxxis Bighorn 2.0
Front - 27 x 9 x 14 in. (68.6 x 22.9 x 35.6 cm)
Rear - 27 x 11 x 14 in. (68.6 x 27.9 x 35.6 cm)
Two lighter type DC outlets, one in the console (20-A) and one in the under dash storage (20-A)
Gauge - Multifunction Analog / Digital: Speedometer, tachometer, odometer, trip and hour meters, fuel, gear position, ECO / Work / Normal modes, seat belt and 4 x 4 indicator, diagnostics, clock, auto shut off
Front - Double A-arm; 10 in. (25.4 cm) travel
Rear - TTA-HD with external sway bar; 10 in. (25.4 cm) travel
Dynamic Power Steering (DPS)
Adjustable tilt
3 Person capacity
VERSA-PRO bench seat with passenger seats flipping up, adjustable driver seat, underside hooks, reinforced XT seat skin and contoured bench to improve entrance/exit of the cab
Hyper Silver
Intense Red
Mossy Oak Break-Up Country Camo
Price, if shown and unless otherwise noted, represents the Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) or dealer unit price and does not include government fees, taxes, dealer vehicle freight/preparation, dealer document preparation charges, labor, installation, or any finance charges (if applicable). MSRP and/or final sales price will vary depending on options or accessories selected; contact dealer for more details.
Images, where available, are presented as reasonable facsimiles of the offered unit and/or manufacturer stock images. Non-standard options or features may be represented. No guarantee of availability or inclusion of displayed options should be inferred; contact dealer for more details.


text:
One of the most comprehensive clinics in Bangalore, offering a wide range of medical services, dental services and pharmacy.
upon request
This information is intended for general information only and should not be considered as medical advice on the part of Health-Tourism.com. Any decision on medical treatments, after-care or recovery should be done solely upon proper consultation and advice of a qualified physician.
What is EECP? Enhanced external counterpulsation (EECP) is a procedure for the treatment of angina, heart failure or cardiomyopathy. It reduces symptoms of ischemia, and enhances the functional ability and quality of life of the patient. EECP is a noninvasive procedure that uses inflatable cuffs to compress the blood vessels of the lower limbs. These cuffs are placed around the calves, thighs and buttocks of the patient. In this procedure, the blood flow in the coronary arteries is increased. EECP is enhanced by computer technology, blood pressure monitors and elctrocardiography. These facilitate accurate timing of the inflation and deflation of the pressure cuffs with the heart beat and blood pressure of the patient. How is EECP Performed?
Copyright © 2008 - 2024 Health-Tourism.com, All Rights Reserved


text:
Lest you folks mistakenly think I'm on the diet train this new year (sacrificing frosting, and all...), I've prepared evidence proving otherwise.
So what have I prepared? In a word, gravy. In three more descriptive and delicious words, chipped beef gravy.
It's a simple concept--make a roux, add your oh-so-salty beef, spices, and seasonings--but the combination atop a warm and fluffy biscuit is one of my favorite things to eat. I know a lot of people cringe when they think about gravy, but it's not really all that bad. Sure, there's some butter involved, but let's be honest--butter is in everything. Everything worth eating, at least...
Definitely worth eating. |
In college, my friends and I became addicted to chipped beef gravy. We ate ridiculous amounts of the stuff and even planned our schedules around the rare days that it was served in the cafeteria. Looking back, it's probably a good thing that chipped-beef-gravy days were so infrequent--I'm not kidding when I say we ate ridiculous amounts. Bowls full. So I guess in that sense, gravy can be a bad thing.
Moderation, my friends. Moderation.
Champion Chipped Beef Gravy
(makes 3 impressively-sized portions)
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk
4 ounces dried beef lunch meat, sliced into 1/2-inch pieces
Salt and pepper
the tiniest pinch of nutmeg
dash Worcestershire sauce or, even better, hot sauce (if you're feeling frisky)
Add the butter to a large saucepan set over medium heat. When melted, sprinkle in the flour. Whisk constantly until there are no lumps and the roux has slightly darkened.
Slowly pour in the milk, whisking constantly. Keep whisking until there are no lumps. Cook until the sauce thickens, just a couple minutes.
Add the nutmeg, a dash of some sort of flavorful sauce, and a crack of fresh black pepper. Stir well, and then add the dried beef. Cook for a couple minutes to warm the beef. Season the mixture with salt to taste, then dump onto biscuits or toast (or a shingle...) and devour.


text:
A quick way to see which DBA handlers, without version numbers, that have been built into your version of MySQL on your system, use var_dump with dba_handler() as follows:
var_dump ( "dba_handlers()" );
Many distros build in these DBA Handlers by default:
array(5) { [0]=> string(3) "cdb" [1]=> string(8) "cdb_make" [2]=> string(3) "db4" [3]=> string(7) "inifile" [4]=> string(8) "flatfile" }
using print and pre tags for readability:
array(5) {
string(3) "cdb"
string(8) "cdb_make"
string(3) "db4"
string(7) "inifile"
string(8) "flatfile"
Note there are issues with dba_insert and dba_replace without building for either GDBM or QDBM.
Here are two sources for the list of DBA handlers: (http://www.php-editors.com/php_manual/ref.dba.html and http://dewa03.unep.org/manuals/php_manual/ref.dba.html; )
CDBM & CDB compiles have issues with updates, you can read databases and write new database files, but you will be prevented from using dba_replace() and you may have issues with dba_insert().
NDBM & DBM are depreciated.
DB2, DB3 & DB4 (Berkeley DB Sleepycat Software / Oracle) Have read online about issues with dba_replace() and db4 specifically. Make sure you test your installation for correct usage of all DBA functions.
SDBM, TDB, TinyCDB were not listed on most of the sources I have found online. Those DBA handlers and the names of the developers were listed on the QDBM source forge site. How they interact with dba_replace() I do not know. You should be aware of their existence.
GDBM and QDBM are the only other two DBA handlers I am aware of. Both are reported to allow PHP's dba_replace() function to work correctly so either may be an acceptable option. The following three restrictions of traditional DBM are not issues for either GDBM or QDBM: 1) a process can handle only one database; 2) the size of a key and a value is bounded; 3) a database file is sparse.
DBA handler benchmark compares QDBM, GDBM, NDBM, SDBM, TDB, CDB, BDB, QDBM-BT-ASC, QDBM-BT-RND, BDB-BT-ASC, BDB-BT-RND can be found here: (http://qdbm.sourceforge.net/benchmark.pdf);
QDBM seems to offer significant improvements in speed over the other DBA Handlers, test in your environment to verify the results.


text:
A design for retro gaming fans!
Our standard mens t-shirts have been carefully sourced to ensure they are comfortable, soft and have a not too loose and not too tight "European" fit.
The mens tee has a ribbed collar, taped neck, high quality twin needle stitching and a tubular body, ensuring a great fit.
Material: 100% ringspun cotton
Weight: 150gsm
Mens T-Shirts / Long Sleeve / V-Necks | Chest Size (inches) |
Small | 36-38 |
Medium | 38-40 |
Large | 41-42 |
X Large | 43-44 |
2X Large | 45-47 |
3X Large | 47-49 |
We offer a choice of the following delivery services:
Orders usually arrive within a week and includes tracking for your convenience
Orders usually arrive within 15 Working days, shipped with Airmail


text:
Pearson's Peppermint Patties 240ct
Original Flavors - watermelon, apple, cherry, grape & blue raspberry
2 lb. tub contains delicious individually wrapped Peppermint Starlight Mints hard candy.
Hershey's Milk Chocolate w/Almonds 36ct
Lifesaver Candy 20ct
5 Flavors
Farley's Chewy Mix is a high quality mix of branded and caramel items. Brands include Tootsie, Bit-O-Honey, Slo Pokes, Caramel Creams, Assorted Tof..(more)
Dove Dark Chocolate Bars 1.3oz/24ct
Dubble Bubble Tub 380ct
Bobs Sweet Stripes Mint Tub 290ct
It is available in fruit flavors and each wrapper comes with a joke.
Assortment features:


text:
Premium Custom Omnipod Snaps® Cover – CARPE DIEM
The covers are reusable and fit the Omnipod U-100 and Omnipod DASH.
My covers have been extensively tested. The covers hold up while sleeping, exercising, showering, with no problems! Easy to apply and remove. Once you place the Omnipod on your body, you can snap the cover on, wear it for 3 days and when you remove the pod you can gently remove the cover once the pod is off your body. Please do NOT attempt to remove the cover while the Omnipod is on your body as the cannula may dislodge causing the Omnipod to malfunction.
The cover is made on a 3D printer with high quality PLA plastic. Once the cover has been made it is coated with UV resin to protect the paint and improve durability.
My covers are not liable for Omnipod devices not working properly. The snap on cover itself and the material used cannot cause the device to malfunction.
Shipped with USPS First Class Package.
Condition: New
Brand: Handmade by Omnipod Snaps®
Category: Health & Beauty > Health Care > Diabetes Care > Other Diabetic Supplies


text:
Calling Me Baby Khaki Jacket
or 4 interest-free payments of with
Calling Me Baby Khaki Jacket
Size and Fit
Model Height 5'7
Wearing Size Small
SHIPPING: We offer free shipping on all U.S. orders. In addition, we do offer a standard shipping and priority mail option for a cost that can be found at checkout. Orders are processed Monday - Friday and are shipped within 1-5 business days of purchase.
INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING: Enjoy our Worldwide shipping service with USPS International, typically arriving within 7-18 business days.
RETURNS: Customers are able to return items for a refund within14days from the day the order was received.
For items received after this time period, we reserve the right to deny the return or store credit.


text:
Environmental Forecasting
A section of Forecasting (ISSN 2571-9394).
Editorial Board
Topical Collection
Following topical collection within this section is currently open for submissions:
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All articles published by MDPI are made immediately available worldwide under an open access license. No special permission is required to reuse all or part of the article published by MDPI, including figures and tables. For articles published under an open access Creative Common CC BY license, any part of the article may be reused without permission provided that the original article is clearly cited. For more information, please refer to https://www.mdpi.com/openaccess.
Feature papers represent the most advanced research with significant potential for high impact in the field. A Feature Paper should be a substantial original Article that involves several techniques or approaches, provides an outlook for future research directions and describes possible research applications.
Feature papers are submitted upon individual invitation or recommendation by the scientific editors and must receive positive feedback from the reviewers.
Editor's Choice articles are based on recommendations by the scientific editors of MDPI journals from around the world. Editors select a small number of articles recently published in the journal that they believe will be particularly interesting to readers, or important in the respective research area. The aim is to provide a snapshot of some of the most exciting work published in the various research areas of the journal.
Original Submission Date Received: .
A section of Forecasting (ISSN 2571-9394).
Following topical collection within this section is currently open for submissions:


text:
I'm Michel Martin and this is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. Coming up, we get an update on developments in Mali in West Africa. That's a country known to many for its cultural heritage. French soldiers have started an assault to repel Islamist militants who have already taken northern territory. NPR's Ofeibea Quist Arcton is going to bring us up to date in just a few minutes.
But first, President Obama is less than a week away from being sworn into his second term in office, so we've been looking at some of the unresolved issues from his first four years. Yesterday we talked about his often stated pledge to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and why that hasn't happened yet.
Today we want to look at the president's record on creating economic opportunity, especially for those at the lower end of the ladder. Joining us to talk about this is Keli Goff. She is a political correspondent for TheRoot.com. That's an online publication. She's been writing about promises the president made in his first term.
Also with us is Ron Christie. He is a Republican strategist, a former aide to President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. He's a regular contributor to our political conversations. Welcome back to both of you. A Happy New Year to you both.
RON CHRISTIE: Happy New Year.
KELI GOFF: Great to be back.
MARTIN: So Keli, at yesterday's press conference the president was mainly talking about the debt ceiling, which is another challenge, but he used a lot of the same themes he's been talking about for the last four years. And he said the American people agree with him. Let's listen.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: They don't think it's fair, for example, to ask a senior to pay more for his or her healthcare or a scientist to shut down life-saving research so that a multi-millionaire investor can pay less in tax rates than a secretary.
MARTIN: So he talked a lot about fairness and he tied, you know, economic fairness to economic opportunity. So I'm going to ask you to assess his overall record in creating better economic conditions for Americans overall.
GOFF: Well, I don't think that anyone who's actually being a fair critic can say that this president hasn't gone to the mat for the middle class, right? I mean he fought to save auto jobs in Michigan when he fought to save GM. He fought for the tax rate, right?
And you know, I got in a little trouble when I made the point that for a number of Americans living in places like New York and other - even D.C., right, high cost urban areas, if they're making $250,000, they have four kids in private school, or they're paying for kids to go to college, those are upper middle class Americans.
Those are not, quote, rich one percenters, and you know, by the cost of living they're having to endure. So that case can certainly be made. The bigger question, though, Michel, is what has he really done in terms of poverty, right, because that's what ends up costing all of us a lot more. It hurts the lives of impoverished Americans. It hurts the future of children. Every study has shown that.
And that's where his record gets much more mixed. Some would say it's not mixed, it's negative. Because his record in terms of really doing what he talked about doing on the campaign trail, which was, for instance, replicating Geoffrey Canada's extremely successful work in Harlem for children, he said, you know, it's going to cost billions of dollars. That's what he said in 2008. And I'm looking to do that as president. That money has not materialized. His record even on addressing black unemployment, while the campaign was able to celebrate that just before the election the unemployment rate finally fell below eight percent nationwide, no president had been reelected since FDR with unemployment higher than eight percent.
So there was a lot of jubilation in Democratic circles, it finally cracked below eight just before the election. Except it didn't with one group - African-Americans. Rose to over 14 percent in October. So his record in terms of addressing poor communities, poor communities of color, is one that's led to a lot of critics, including former head of the CBC Emanuel Cleaver, you know, he said to me in an interview with The Root that if those numbers were the way they were for a white president in terms of black unemployment, they'd be marching around the White House. So there's no question that there's a lot more work for him to do in the second term.
MARTIN: You know, it's an interesting question, Ron Christie, you know, we wanted to obviously talk broadly but just focusing on African-American unemployment in particular, one of the president's - his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, one of his central arguments was you can - and he actually put this in an ad - you can say the president's tried.
You can say the president is a nice guy. You can say that he cares. But you can't say he's succeeded. But the public didn't agree with him. And one argument for why the public didn't agree with him - and this according to, say, the noted political scientist William Julius Wilson - is that the steps the president has taken have laid the groundwork, even if they haven't achieved the results in the short-term. What do you say to that?
CHRISTIE: Really? I say that this president came in and he said that he inherited a disaster from his predecessor and we immediately needed to pass a stimulus bill, that if we had passed the stimulus bill, the $1 trillion or more or less that was proposed to be for shovel-ready projects and bridges and road construction, that by this point that unemployment would be, of course, beneath six percent.
The reality of the matter is that unemployment has never been beneath 7.8 percent during his entire four years in office. I look at the president and I look at his press conference the other day and I see an individual - it's almost like he's never been president. Right? You know, if those Republicans would only go along with more spending, more taxes, you know, socking it to the wealthy, then the world would be a better place.
But when you look at his actual record - and I agree with Keli on this - I am so disappointed. What Geoffrey Canada has done with the Promise Academy in Harlem is nothing short of revolutionary. And the president originally called for the creation of said academies across the country, but then didn't go to fund it.
If you're going to actually take concrete steps to help those who need help the most, and I truly believe that education is the civil rights issue of the 21st century, then this president has failed. And I don't see anything - any willingness, any midcourse correction, other than to continue to tax the wealthy and to continue to deficit spend rather than to actually take concrete steps to help the economy.
GOFF: Well...
MARTIN: We're talking about - hold on. We're talking about unresolved issues from the president's first four years in office. We're talking with Republican strategist Ron Christie and Keli Goff of The Root. Keli?
GOFF: Well, this is one of the rare times where Ron and I are actually in agreement to some degree, because normally we never are.
GOFF: But I will say that - but there is a yin and yang here, right? Because if you do want to replicate these programs, you have to fund them. The funding has to come from somewhere. That brings up controversial things like taxing the wealthy. But I think actually the bigger issue, Michel, in terms of - we are in somewhat agreement that I don't think the president succeeded, certainly not the way that people had hoped, and that he would even want - say that he wanted to. But the question in terms of why is where we're probably not going to agree. And here's what I mean. When you look at the work that William Julius Wilson has done in terms of how poverty in urban areas is different in its function, the way that it sort of spreads like a disease differently than it does in rural America and other parts of the country, because it's so concentrated, right, but part of those issues are all intertwined, which is what his research has shown. So you can't, for instance, talk about how do we solve the dropout rate in these communities, how do we solve feeding these kids, and not talk about the role that race, cultural issues, all these factors come into play together. And that's what I actually would argue has stymied the president the most.
Because as a black president facing a reelection who is struggling with white males, he didn't want to hold press conferences or issue policy papers that say, hey, there's a Princeton study from 2005 that showed that a white male with a prison conviction is still more likely to get a callback for a job interview than a black guy without one if the one doing the hiring is white. Which is what that studied showed.
MARTIN: So what does that suggest, though? I mean does it suggest he should have done more job owning? Does it suggest that he should have done more in the way of policy? Ron seems to be saying there are just simply policies that he could have pursued that he did not pursue. Including fighting employment discrimination, which is something that we have hear zero about.
GOFF: That's - well, I agree with you. I totally agree with you. And the point that I'm making is I agree that he should have done more on that. If he had, though, I don't know that he would have been reelected. Because I simply don't think that a black president saying, you know, here's a policy solution that's specific to African-Americans because they have a tougher time because of race, would have been popular - even though it's true.
Even though it's a hundred percent true. So I think the question becomes in the second term, are we going to see him more comfortable and confident saying things like that out loud and then working up a policy framework from that end, because he's not worried about reelection?
One of the things - I'm not trying to ramble here - but one of the things I did mention in my piece, Michel, is an example of cities like Philadelphia, where Michael Nutter has seen tremendous success in offering tax breaks to those who are willing to hire former felons who are trying to go the right way. He calls it one of the best prison recidivism programs against making that happen.
That matters when one in six black men has been to prison. But you've never heard the president endorse a program like that because of all the political and racial landmines there.
MARTIN: Well, one thing we have to talk about, though, is the student loan issue, because the administration has consistently argued that access to higher education is the best way to address economic opportunity overall, even though it's a long term investment.
Earlier this year he said that Congress shouldn't let interest rates double on student loans.
OBAMA: For many working families, the idea of owing that much money means that higher education is simply out of reach for their children. Now, in America higher education cannot be a luxury. It's an economic imperative that every family must be able to afford.
MARTIN: Ron, can you bring yourself to say that the president has followed through on promises to ease the student loan burden, and is that, in fact, a relevant issue, something we should be worried about?
CHRISTIE: Yes, he did. But again, I am so disappointed in the way that he did it. He consolidated the student loan industry and put it under the federal government. I as a free market capitalist say it is far better to have the free market, banks and institutions, that are lending money to students as opposed to the federal government. It almost becomes another entitlement.
The president - and Keli and I would agree with this - absolutely, college has to be within reach of every American child who wants to go. We also need to look at reforming our colleges and universities. The tuition is exploding at much higher than the rate of inflation and there's runaway spending that's going on at these universities and these colleges. And frankly, you need to ask yourself - and I was an English major and I'm happily employed - but you need to ask yourself, if students who are going to college and doing fine arts and they're doing dance and they're doing anthropology, are these types of majors and these areas of concentrations preparing them for a job in a very highly technical workforce?
GOFF: Well, but the president has actually said that. Right? He has offered criticism that says that, you know, if you're going to take out $40,000 in debt, you should really rethink what you're majoring in. But student loans are actually right up there, I'd say, with gay rights, one of the issues he's done more on than president - than anything else. And actually even his critics would have to agree with that. I mean the laundry list of things he's done, which you can see in my column in TheRoot.com, is pretty extraordinary, not just defending the interest rates, but pushing for the IBR to lower it from 15 percent of your income to 10 percent of your minimum income and fighting the fast track that once you've been a responsible payer for 20 years, you're no longer on the hook.
The most important thing, though, Michel, I would argue that he's actually done is fought to make it a consumer rights issue by getting the consumer rights agency involved to fight to ensure that colleges are actually printing accurate information when they're trying to lure parents and families into taking out this debt.
And you know, really quickly, an example is when they say to a student in their brochures, we have 100 percent employment rate from our alumni, and then a student takes out $25,000, goes to this college, finds out that that employment rate actually includes a bunch of kids with Master's degrees who are working as waitresses and bartenders.
GOFF: He's fighting against that kind of stuff.
MARTIN: We have to leave it there for now. We'll have to look ahead to both the inaugural address and the State of the Union to see whether there is more to say about the issues that we've talked about here, and we'll come back and talk about that.
Keli Goff is a political correspondent for The Root. Ron Christie is a Republican strategist, a former aide to President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, and a reformed English major, something we have just learned today. They both joined us from NPR's bureau in New York.
Thank you both.
CHRISTIE: Always a pleasure.
GOFF: Thanks, Michel. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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Title: Poets Chanting at the Dome Show
Artist: Michael de Courcy
Date: March 31, 1970
Format: Photograph [fibre based gelatin silver print]
Location: The Michael de Courcy Archive
Size: 12.70 × 10.20 cm
More Information: The Dome Show was Intermedia's third and final exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery taking place from May 19th- May 31st 1970. The unifying structure of the Dome Show was the geodesic dome. Intermedia members were invited to build a dome individually or communally. A variety of art events and community events took place in the gallery and in the geodesic domes. May 23: Poets perform at the Dome Show's Bring a Poet afternoon poetry event. his event was organized by Intermedia's Poetry Front group. Collection of the artist.
Further Research: The Intermedia CatalogueDiscrete project sites documenting the work of specific artists and collectives in detail.
Essays and conversation providing a context for exploring the Project Sites and Archives.
Video interviews conducted between December 2008 and May 2009 reflecting on Vancouver's art scene in the sixties.


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Yamaha RAV552 replacement remote control with a different look
The replacement for the original Yamaha remote control for this device is the branded EMERX PReDATOR remote control (in right), which has a different appearance (color, button layout, etc.), but the same functions as the original Yamaha remote control. We offer the EMERX PReDATOR remote control as a cheaper alternative to the original remote control or because this original remote control is no longer manufactured. You do not have to program the remote control sent by us in any way. It will be set up exactly for your Yamaha device, while retaining all the features.
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Acclaimed Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa, who is spending this semester as the 2010 Distinguished Visitor in Princeton University's Program in Latin American Studies, has been awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in literature. He also is a visiting lecturer in Princeton's Program in Creative Writing and the Lewis Center for the Arts.
Known for his deep engagement with politics and history, as well as his deft storytelling and eye for the absurd, Vargas Llosa has been a major figure in Latin American fiction since his debut novel, "The Time of the Hero," was published in Spanish in 1963.
He won this year's Nobel "for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt and defeat," the Swedish Academy said in announcing the award today.
"I was wondering if it was a joke," Vargas Llosa said of the early-morning phone call he received from the academy, according to an interview on the Nobel Prize website. It was 5:30 a.m. but he was already awake, he said, preparing for one of the Princeton classes he is teaching next week.
"I'm deeply moved and grateful," he said. "I feel very surprised. Writing has been such a fantastic pleasure for me all my life that I cannot believe I am honored and recompensed for something that has been so recompensive to me." He will receive 10 million krona ($1.5 million) as the prize winner.
At a midday press conference at the Instituto Cervantes in New York City with a crowd of more than 150, Vargas Llosa was asked how the prize will affect him. "I'll keep on writing to the last day of my life. I don't think the Nobel Prize will change my writing, my style, my themes -- that comes from a very intimate part of my personality. What I think the prize will change is my daily life," he quipped. "I thought these months I will spend in the United States will be very quiet, (but) everything has changed. My life will be, I think, a life in a madhouse."
At Princeton this fall, Vargas Llosa is teaching a course in Spanish on techniques of the novel and another on Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. Vargas Llosa has had a relationship with the Program in Latin American Studies for several years and taught at the University in the 1992-93 academic year. In addition, his literary papers -- including notebooks, correspondence, and manuscripts of novels and other writing -- are housed in Firestone Library.
"Our students have already had a great opportunity to work directly not only with a first-rate writer, of course, but a writer who's been seen to take on social issues directly and decisively," said Paul Muldoon, chair of the Lewis Center, who is a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet. "It's important that our students, and the rest of us, are reminded that literature is a real force in the world."
Maria Julia Gutierrez, a junior from Mexico who is in Vargas Llosa's class on the techniques of the novel, said that her family was astonished that she was able to take a class with the distinguished author.
"It's something that will mark my Princeton experience and is something that I will never forget," said Gutierrez, who is majoring in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and pursuing a certificate in Latin American studies. "The class has been amazing. Not only are we able to hear this famous author, but interact with him on a personal level."
Vargas Llosa is a prominent voice in the world of Peruvian politics -- as a prolific essayist and as a candidate for the country's presidency in 1990 -- who has often written about historical events in his fiction.
"He has an especially keen eye for the absurdity that characterizes Latin America's strangest historical moments," said RubÈn Gallo, a professor of Spanish and Portuguese languages and cultures and the director of the Program in Latin American Studies. "He gives historical events a beautiful novelistic form. His plots are elegant and compelling, and he gives the perspective of how these historical and political episodes affect the everyday person living in Latin America."
Literary scholar Arcadio DÌaz-QuiÒones, who has known Vargas Llosa since the late 1960s, said the award validated the writer's broad influence in Latin American literature and politics through his fiction and his essays.
"This is a recognition not just for him, but a recognition of Latin American literature," said DÌaz-QuiÒones, the Emory L. Ford Professor of Spanish Emeritus at Princeton. "He is a representative writer in so many ways of Latin American literature. This prize is a recognition of the richness and wealth and variety of Latin American literature."
Those sentiments were echoed by Gabriela Nouzeilles, professor and chair of Spanish and Portuguese languages and cultures. She said that Vargas Llosa's "literary fictions explore humanity in its multiple and contradictory dimensions, from the horrors of history and the violent legacy of colonialism and political madness, to the sweeping forces of erotic desire and the miracle of laughter."
"He is masterful storyteller, able to bewitch the reader with the power of his poetic prose and the fascinating complexity of his fictional worlds," Nouzeilles said.
Historian Jeremy Adelman said that many of Vargas Llosa's political crusades have been on individual rights and freedoms.
"He has always defended the space and autonomy of culture," said Adelman, the Walter Samuel Carpenter III Professor in Spanish Civilization and Culture and director of Princeton's Council for International Teaching and Research. "Writers need to have autonomy from political structures. It's not always a popular stance but he was always a defender of it. He's a classical liberal with a fabulous imagination."
At the press conference, Vargas Llosa addressed questions about whether he believed the prize was associated with his political beliefs.
"I am a writer but I am also a citizen. I have literary ideas and values, but I also have civic and political ideas," he said. "But I am basically a writer, and I would like to be remembered, if I am remembered, for my work. On the other hand, I am also a citizen and I have political ideas, which I think is a moral obligation of every citizen."
Vargas Llosa's most well-known works include "ConversaciÛn en la catedral" (1969; "Conversation in the Cathedral," 1975), "TÌa Julia y el escribidor" (1977; "Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter," 1982) and "La guerra del fin del mundo" (1981; "The War of the End of the World," 1984). His 2000 novel "The Feast of the Goat" portrays the final days of General Rafael Trujillo's dictatorial regime in the Dominican Republic in 1961.
"I felt that I had never been on such intimate terms with power," said Edmund White, a professor of creative writing in the Lewis Center, of reading "The Feast of the Goat." "The will, the self-discipline, the paranoia, the deliberate cruelty, the vanity, the concealed fearfulness -- all of these aspects of an autocrat were portrayed in unforgettable and convincing detail.†Vargas Llosa, unlike most writers who live quiet campus lives, has been at the very center of politics and understands it better than any other living novelist."
While on Princeton's campus this semester, Vargas Llosa is giving students an intimate opportunity -- through his courses and other opportunities for interaction -- to gain insights into his thinking about the craft of writing.
"I am basically a writer, not a teacher, but I enjoy teaching because of the students, and the chance to talk to them about good literature," Vargas Llosa said earlier this fall. "Good literature is not only entertainment -- it is a fantastic entertainment -- but it's also something that gives you a better understanding of the world in which you live. Literature is an exploration of all the possibilities of human life."
Vargas Llosa tells his students that composing fiction is an all-consuming endeavor. "Writing is the commitment of your entire personality and life, and I think it's the only way you can succeed as a writer -- with discipline and also a stubbornness," he said.
The award to Vargas Llosa comes exactly 17 years after Toni Morrison, who is now Princeton's Robeert F. Goheen Professor in the Humanities Emeritus, won the Nobel Prize in literature.
Additional reporting by Emily Aronson, Ushma Patel, Eric QuiÒones and Ruth Stevens


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Lot 69
Italian School, 20th Century, Fishing Boats on Shore, Oil on Canvas, 12 x 16 in
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