The Best Career Advice from Richard Branson

The Best Career Advice from Richard Branson Ever wonder how Richard Branson founded Virgin at the age of 20 and went on to own an unheard of eight different billion-dollar companies- all without a business degree? Well, now you can find out. Here are 10 of Branson’s best suggestions for how to achieve success, starting with his number one suggestion for 2017.1. Always write things down.What good are good ideas when you don’t remember them after you’ve had them? Don’t forget your best ideas. Keep a notebook handy and write every single one of them down! To-do lists also fall under this advice. Don’t let anything important (or potentially important) fall through the cracks.2. Love what you do.If you don’t love it, you probably should find a way not to do it. Building a business takes every ounce of everything you’ve got. Don’t waste all that energy on something that isn’t enjoyable to you even a little.3. Make a splash.You need to be seen out there in your industry a nd in the world. You have to go out and sell yourself, appear in print, travel, and otherwise be visible. Meet as many people as you can and loop them all into your massive network.4.  Brand yourself with care.When choosing your brand and name, make sure that name represents everything you want your brand to say. Pick a name that matches how you want the world to see your product. It’s worth the extra time and effort brainstorming.5. Understand that risk is necessary.Every business requires taking risks. Take smart ones, rather than trying to avoid any risks at all. Playing it safe won’t get you far.6. Don’t forget the second impression.We all know how important the first impression can be. But the second shouldn’t be forgotten. Once you bring in a customer, make sure their second impression is so good that you hang onto them for life.7. Perfection is a mirage.Nothing and no one is ever 100% perfect. There is always room for improvement. Embrace this an d use it to push yourself ever further.8. Go where no one else has gone.Venture into uncharted territory. Figure out what hasn’t been done or thought of yet, and do that thing. Find the hole in the market and fill it. Spark new ideas and innovation and stay on the cutting edge.9. Start using â€Å"we.†You want all employees to be using the word â€Å"we† to describe their company and their relationship to their work. An absence of this is a sign that management and those down the chain of command aren’t communicating, and aren’t on the same page.10. Know that everyone isn’t a born leader.Managers and leaders bring the best out in people, and communicate extremely effectively. Not everyone does this well. If you found a company but don’t find yourself suitable for management, appoint people to manage- it’s okay!

Basic French Politeness Vocabulary and Expressions

Basic French Politeness Vocabulary and Expressions After you master your French survival phrases, the very next thing you need to conquer in French is politeness. Do Smile in France You may have heard that it was not OK to smile in France. I dont agree. I am Parisian born and raised, then lived 18 years in the US, then came back to France to raise my daughter among my (also French) husband family. People smile in France. Especially when they interact, ask for something, are trying to make a good impression. In a large city like Paris, smiling to everybody may make you look out of place. Especially if you are a woman and are smiling to each guy that looks at you: they may think you are flirting.   However, that doesnt mean you shouldnt smile, especially when you are talking to someone.   Lots of French students are afraid to speak French, and therefore have a very intense facial expression: its not nice. So try to relax, breathe in, and smile! Tu Versus Vous - The French You There is MUCH to say on this subject which is deeply rooted in French history. But to sum it up. Use tu with one person you are talking to: a child, a close friend, an adult in a very relaxed setting, a family member, anyone who uses tu with you (unless they are much older than you).Use vous with everybody else you are talking to. An adult you are not close to, a colleague, a person much older than you... and with a group of several people (whether you say tu or vous to them individually. The choice between tu and vous also depends on social class (this is very important and the main reason why French people use tu or vous to talk to one person), geographic region, age, and... personal preference!   Now, each time you learn a French expression using you - youll have to learn two forms. The tu one and the vous one. French Politeness Essentials Monsieur - SirMadame - Lady, MadamMademoiselle - Miss, to be used with younger (too young to be married) women When addressing someone, it is much more polite in French to follow with Monsieur, Madame or Mademoiselle. In English, it may be a bit over the top, depending where you come from. Not in France. Oui - Yes.Non - No.Merci - Thank you.Bonjour - hi, hello.Au revoir - Bye.Sil vous plaà ®t - please (using vous)/  Sil te plaà ®t - please (saying tu)Je vous en prie - youre welcome (using vous) / Je ten prie (saying tu)Dà ©solà ©(e) - sorryPardon - sorryComment ? - Excuse me - when you couldnt hear someone.Excusez-moi (for vous) / excuse-moi (for tu) - excuse-me vos souhaits (for vous) / tes souhaits (for tu) - bless you (after someone sneezes) Of course, there is much more to say about French politeness. We  suggest you check out look at the  downloadable audio lesson on French Politeness to master the modern French pronunciation and all the cultural nuances linked to French politeness and greetings.

Presentation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 8

Presentation - Essay Example Mercanta International is a long time and decently reputed company that sources green coffee from seventeen countries in Africa and Latin America. We are especially well mentioned with regards to strong corporation and considerate corporate policies in the wider context of interests of our corporate partners. Moreover, we adhere to a strict code of operation and corporate ethics and meet all legal benchmarks in all our operations. It is thus our sincere assurance to you that you can have all the confidence as you consider this offer to corporation. Some of the immediate benefits your association stand to benefit working with us is the fact you would no longer have to take your coffee beans through the conventional roasting process and other primary preparation procedures as we would help out with that. The most likely by you question is how. Let break it to you that we have progressed to source the green fresh coffee berries almost straight from the farms. In this regard, your association will take advantage of our efficient infrastructure, systems and logistics in temporary packaging for fright and reduced transportation costs. You therefore stand to get higher returns for your produce as this potential partnership would reduce the bureaucratic and most wasteful stages of handling your produce. If these developments were to succeed, we have a plan in preliminary stages to establish a local office right here in Kenya to effectively handle your affairs and to strengthen our partnership. We have had lengthy deliberations on your main concern of delayed payments as has been perpetually been the case in your perspective. As a direct outcome of these deliberations, it is my pleasure to make it known that plans are underway to partner with Barclays Bank Kenya and The Jubilee Insurance Company to take care of any unforeseen instances that may delay disbursement of money in time to your association therefore to farmers. We also look forward to establishing a

Learning journal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Learning journal - Essay Example Significantly, Student A had a fast food business and is looking to taking a shift after completion of his degree in Business Degree where he hopes to be a financial Analyst after a certain period. Strategic Learner Realizing one-self is a vital factor especially when one wants to be successful; typically, one should know the kind of person they are and what style and mode of learning fits them best. Considerably, the best methods which are applicable when it comes to interpreting of information are through visual, audio and kinesthetic methods and this can go hand in hand with reflection, experience, theories and experiments (Fleming and Mills, 1992: Kolb, 1984). Student A learns most out of seeing and activity, as from the results which he should put much into so that they can impact his life as an academic and a professional. Any good learner with a strategy will identify specific methods (one of them being a main method) that they will use for their personal learning experience a nd simply apply these methods with Kolb’s cycle. From this a lot can be achieved including Student As goals and aims in both worlds (academic and professional). Moreover, the mindset of a person also matters in any learning situation and a matter of fact the best mind set is one that has room for growth and not the fixed mindset (Carol 2007). In this case, Student A must have a growth- mindset that will help him overcome the different difficulties and challenges in different situations i.e. he can acquire more knowledge out of the normal class/school setting and read further about the current trends of the business world and this will have a great impact and be part of the learning process. Student A will be in a better position if he is able to learn independently and the growth mindset will be easily developed; all the same, this will involve seeing the teacher after class or before for consultation, guidance and feedback. Significantly, there are merits that Student A has like his problem solving and investigating skills that are essential when it comes to independent study but his poor skills in time management and planning might be a big hindrance to his development as a strategic learner. Being a financial analyst requires a lot and for Student A to be successful he must have a lot of self-awareness and high emotional intelligence which he will be likely to apply in most of his working situations. Self awareness and emotional intelligence are applied in social and professional behavior through displaying high levels of maturity and consideration of the people one is working with, respecting both these people and also the cultures of these environments despite the diversity. By and large, Student A must be alert in all the relative areas reflected in his learning journal, core skills and personal SWOT analysis portraying high level of confidence and put into action an active learning style. However, he must also observe his weaknesses and not let t hem take the best of opportunities or affect his learning and development. Skills Analysis Student A’s has high mark when it comes to his core skills through experiences and a lot of developments that have helped him in analysis; all the same, through the SWOT analysis the threats still

Discuss the major changes in maternal physiology that are essential to Essay

Discuss the major changes in maternal physiology that are essential to a healthy pregnancy outcome and give examples of how placenta may adversely affect pregnancy outcome - Essay Example The changes, mostly those relating to early stages of pregnancy, are partially attributable to â€Å"the metabolic demands brought on by the foetus, placenta and the uterus† (Ciliberto & Marx 1998, para. 1). Besides, the increase in the levels of hormones during pregnancy, especially those related to progesterone and oestrogen are also responsible for inducing the changes. However, most of the changes that occur in the later stages of the pregnancy pertain to the woman’s anatomy, as a result of â€Å"mechanical pressure from the expanding uterus† (Ciliberto & Marx 1998, para. 1). The physiological changes that occur in a woman during pregnancy are intended to â€Å"facilitate the adaptation of the cardio-vascular system to the increased metabolic needs of the mother, thus enabling adequate delivery of oxygenated blood to peripheral tissues and the foetus† (Silversides & Colman n.d., p. 1). The physiological and anatomical changes that a woman undergoes dur ing pregnancy have high significance on pregnancy outcomes and appropriate physiological transformation is a crucial element in achieving healthy pregnancy outcomes. There are several changes that occur in pregnant woman during the gestation period, which can be anatomical or physiological, such as: gestational weight gain, cardio-vascular changes, hormonal changes, changes in respiratory system, changes in the immunity system etc. This study will contain an analysis of three of the major changes in maternal physiology, such as Gestational Weight Gain, Hormonal Changes and Changes in the Cardio-Vascular System, as endorsed below: - This is one of the major changes that occur in a pregnant female during gestation period. One significant development during pregnancy is that a woman’s uterus undergoes enlargement and, as a consequence, abdominal viscera gets displaced. This, in turn, causes elevation of the diaphragm as a result of which the heart is moved â€Å"upwards to the left and assumes a

Business Cycle Synchronization in Latin America

Business Cycle Synchronization in Latin America Business cycles synchronization in Latin America:  A TVTPMS Approach Introduction: Over the last decades, there has been a growing interest in the business cycle transmissions among countries and interdependencies. The design of regional co-operations and integrations, such as Mercosur or Latin America countries, has the purpose to reduce poverty, amplify society welfare and enhance macroeconomic stability. However, it is crucial to understand the influence of regional integration and the role of external factors on regional business cycle synchronization. Fiess (†¦..) find that a relatively low degree of business cycle synchronization within Central America as well as between Central America and the United States. Grigoli (2009) analyzed the causation relations among business activities of the Mercosur countries to determine which cycles are dependent on others, considering trade intensity, trade structure and the influences of the EU and US as well. He find some causation relations among the South-American countries; however, the EU and US do not play a relevant role in determining the fluctuations of their cycles. Gutierrez and Gomes (†¦..) use the Beveridge-Nelson-Stock-Watson multivariate trend-cycle decomposition model to estimate a common trend and common cycle. Aiolfi et al. (2010) identify a sizeable common component in the LA countries’ business cycles, suggesting the existence of a regional cycle Caporale and Girardi (2012) show that the LA region as a whole is largely dependent on external developments and the trade channel appears to be the most important source of business cycle co-movement. They report that the business cycle of the individual LA countries appears to be influenced by country-specific, regional and external shocks in a very heterogenous way. In order to investigate the degree of synchronization of the business cycles among the six major LA economies[1] (namely, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela) as a whole, we consider the presence of a regional cycle by estimating the common growth cycle with the aim of testing its effect on each country-specific cycle. Besides this introduction, this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 contains the model and describes the data. Section 3 presents the empirical results and finally, section 4 concludes. Data and Methodology : We use quarterly data of the real GDP growth rate of the LAC countries, extracted from Penn World Table , namely †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦, covering the period from the first quarter of †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ to the last quarter of †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. We focus on whether the economic activity in the LAC countries is driven by a joint business cycle. We first look at the engine of growth lies within the LA countries. We therefore firstly begin by studying the existence of a common cycle among the economies studied. Second, we attempt to find the influence of a common factor referred to as the LAC’s business cycle extracted from the estimation of a dynamic common factor model. We employ a measure of business cycles synchronization based on Hamilton’s (1989) original Markov-switching model and the time– varying Markov–switching model developed by Filardo (1994) and reconsidered recently by Kim et al. (2008) to investigate the regional common factor in dating the regional business cycles. This study analyzes whether the synchronization pattern of business cycles in a country has systematically changed with the expansion or recession phases of regional business cycle. In this context, we assumed business cycles in a particular country are driven by regional cycles proxied by the common dynamic factor in real GDP growth of the LA countries, thus we use a dynamic factor model to extract the regional cycle. The main interest of the analysis is that a latent dynamic factor drives the co-movement of a high-dimensional vector of time-series variables which is also affected by a vector of mean-zero idiosyncratic disturbances, ÃŽ µt (Stock, 2010) . The common factors are assumed to follow a first-order autoregressive process. This linear state-space model can be written as follows: (1) (2) where L1,t,†¦,Lk,t are common to all the series, ÃŽ µ and ÃŽ · are independent Gaussian white noise terms. The L matrix of factor loadings measures the instantaneous impact of the common factors on each series. There are two growth phases or regimes with a transition between them governed by a time-varying transition probability matrix. The advantage of such a model is that the regimes can be easily interpreted as regimes of recession and expansion. The estimated equation is the following[2]: , (3) where and The endogenous variable, yt (the real growth rate in a given country at time t) is assumed to visit the two states of a hidden variable, st, that follows a first-order Markov chain, over the T observations[3]. ÃŽ ¼st, ÏÆ', à Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ are real coefficients to be estimated. Denoting zt the leading variable (the regional common factor at time t), we want to know whether zt causes yt+k, k= 1,2, †¦.Under the assumption that both y and z have ergodic distributions, we define the following transition probability functions: (4) where and are elements of the following transition probability matrix: (5) with Pij the probability of switching from regime j at time t − 1 to regime i at time t and i, j =1, 2 with for all i,j∈{1,2. k is a lag. In order to estimate the coefficients of equation (1), we need to maximize the log-likelihood of the unconditional density function of yt: (6) The unconditional density function is the product of the conditional density function and the unconditional probability of st. This is written as[4]: (7) Transition probabilities indicate that the states of expansion and recession are equally persistent, and this persistency is very strong. These probabilities aim to provide information about the likelihood of staying or switching from a given regime of k periods after a regime change in z. If the estimate of ÃŽ ¼1 is positive and ÃŽ ¼2 is negative, then regime 1 can be interpreted as one of expansion and regime 2 as one of contraction. Furthermore, assume that in eq. (†¦) ÃŽ ³1,2 is positive. This indicates that while any increase in leading indicator (z) increases P11, probability that y stays in regime 1, any decrease in z increases 1-P11, probability that y switches from regime 1 k periods later; that is, an expansion (recession) in z leads to an expansion (recession) in another country. Similarly, a negative ÃŽ ³1,2 means that an expansion in z leads to a recession in another country. Additionally, a negative ÃŽ ³2,2 means that any decrease (increase) in leading indicator in creases the probability of staying in regime 2 (switching from regime 2). If both ÃŽ ³1,2 and ÃŽ ³2,2 are insignificant, this would mean that there is no statistically meaningful impact of the occurrence of expansions or recessions in a leading market on the growth regime of the other markets[5]. Empirical Results Fig. 1 refers to the common factor, i.e. the regional growth cycle of the Latin America countries. As we can see, the common factor easily captures the well-known common features of the LA business cycle such as the 1994–95 Mexican crisis and the Tequila crisis. To test the hypothesis of a joint business cycle in the LA, we estimate the TVTPMS model given by Eqs. (1) and (2) with the variable z referring to the common factor (regional cycle). Fig. 1. Common factor in real GDP growth of the Latin America countries The estimation results for the regional cycle as leading variable are reported in Table 1. We find significantly positive ÃŽ ¼1 and negative ÃŽ ¼2 which correspond to a situation of distinct expansion and contraction regimes. Our main findings are based on the significance of the estimated coefficients ÃŽ ³1,2 and ÃŽ ³2,2. When looking at the significance of the coefficient ÃŽ ³1,2 , it is found that the common factor exerts direct effects on Mexico and Venezuela, implying that a high growth rate in regional cycle is informative of GDP expansion phases in these countries. That is, an expansion in common factor increases the probability that Mexico and Venezuela will continue to evolve in an expansion regime (i.e. P11). However, we see that ÃŽ ³2,2 is never significant for these countries. This suggests that the regional cycle can never be considered as a leading indicator of the future state of the cycle in Mexico and Venezuela when they are already in the contraction regime (i.e. P2 2 and P1-22). Conversely, our results show that regional cycle is sensitive to economic fluctuations in Colombia, Chile and Brazil because ÃŽ ³2,2 is significant, thereby implying that any change in regional factor does help predict whether these economies will stay into or escape from contractions. Table 1 Estimation results for the regional cycle as leading variable. The numbers in bold indicate that a high growth rate in Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Chile, and the Brail has an impact on the expansion and recession phases of the regional cycle. The evidence presented here indicates that Latin America countries’ increasing economic interdependence has strengthened both interregional business cycles synchronization. A regional cycle could provide significant informational content in predicting the future state of Mexico and Venezuela only when they are already into the expansionary state and the future state of Colombia, Chile and Mexico when they are already in the contraction regime. That is, the high level of integration reached within the region has enabled Mexico and Venezuela to emerge as a pole of economic growth where their business cycles are mutually reinforced during expansions. In other words, while this increasing economic interdependence tends to strengthen output co-movements when these countries are already in the expansionary state, the shift from contractions to recovery, opposed to Colombia, Chile and Mexico, do not depend on the recovery in other countries. For Argentina, both ÃŽ ³1,2 and ÃŽ ³2,2 is insignificant, implying any change in the regional cycle regional cycle is not sensitive to economic fluctuations in this country. Conclusion The papers other main finding is that a regional cycle could provide significant informational content in predicting the future state of the five of the largest Latin American economies—Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Chile, and Mexico. However, the amplitude and duration of the business cycle are asymmetric, indicating that nonlinearities are important in the growth process. Thus, since the Latin America countries’ business cycles are well-tied together through a regional cycle, the costs of joining a monetary union would be reduced if a deeper regional economic cooperation, including intra-exchange rate stability and macroeconomic policy coordination, before turning on to a full-fledged monetary union. Since the Latin American economies have historically been highly dependent globalization process and demand from outside trading partners it would be interesting repeating a similar exercise with interest rates and cyclical output in advanced countries. References Hamilton, J.D., 1989. A new approach to the economic analysis of nonstationary time  series and the business cycle. Econometrica 57, 357–384. Filardo, A.J., 1994. Business cycle phases and their transitional dynamics. J. Bus. Econ. Stat.  12, 299–308. [1] These countries have accounted for some 70 percent of the region’s GDP over the past half century (Maddison, 2003, pp. 134–140) [2] The lag structure has been tested with standard AIC, HQ and SC criteria. [3] The occurrence of a regime is referred by a variable st that takes two values: 1 if the observed regime is 1 and 2 if it is regime 2 [4] The lags in the model are chosen using the Akaike information criterion. Moreover, we perform the Ljung–Box (LB) test to check that there is no residual autocorrelation [5] In this case, The TVPMS model converges to the Hamilton fixed probability model

Essay --

The use of a necklace to adorn oneself can be traced back through the ages, despite having a sole purpose to be aesthetically pleasing and to enhance an outfit, they have been used to demonstrate our individuality; and to show individuals expression of non-conformism in an attempt to distinguish oneself from society (Menninghaus, W. in Robert, K. 2011). Necklaces have been used as complex visual decorations to convey various meanings; cultural, social status to dictate wealth to others, it was even normal at one stage for wealthy ladies to wear more than one necklace at any single time to signify her wealth and class (McCarthy, M). They can be worn to confirm love and loyalty, and in the case of lockets even store our most treasured mementos, such as photographs and locks of hair. For example, in the Zulu tribe, girls often communicated their feelings to boys through jewellery making; they would thoughtfully and delicately make the jewellery, choosing motifs with great care to subtly convey their feelings. (Vanhaeren, M. 2009). By studying jewellery not only can we identify people’s personal tastes, but we can travel back through the ages, especially by studying the materials in which they are made. The earliest known necklaces were discovered to be made from teeth, bones and such materials that were readily available (Gere, C and Rudoe, J. 2010), today however, the variations are never ending, made from varying materials, such semi-precious stones to gold and silver to more affordable materials, such as plastic and glass beads; with a vast amount of designs, from simple and sophisticated to elaborate and over the top. Jewellery can be passed down through family generations, or given as a gift to a loved one. Necklaces have a hig... ...o bring luck and good fortune for the rest of the month. However, they have not always been viewed as lucky creatures, for example, in the nineteenth century fishermen would refuse to speak the word while out at sea. Whilst in Devon to see a white rabbit would indicate a forthcoming death in a person that was currently ill (Russell, H. (1925). Through the Celtic tribes it was noted that it was taboo to eat rabbit meat, quoting to do so ‘was like eating one’s own grandmother’ (Ezpeleta, A. 1996) this shows us the importance of rabbits and how highly they were regarded throughout history, whilst elsewhere it was considered that eating rabbit meat would cause beauty and vitality. The Celtics also believed that rabbits burrowed underground in order to communicate with the spirit world, and that they could carry messages from the living to the dead. (Ezpeleta, A. 1996).